The Information Diet
Practice selective ignorance to reclaim your time and attention
The Information Diet is Ferriss's framework for practicing selective ignorance as a productivity strategy. The premise is simple: most information you consume is irrelevant to your goals, yet it consumes enormous amounts of time and mental energy. News, social media, most emails, and even many books are time wasters that create the illusion of being productive without actually moving you closer to your objectives.
The framework prescribes a radical intervention: a one-week media fast during which you consume zero news, no non-essential web browsing, and no magazines or newspapers. Instead, you rely on a well-informed colleague for a five-minute daily briefing on anything truly important. After the fast, you gradually reintroduce only the information streams that directly support your work and goals.
This is not about being uninformed; it is about being selectively informed. The Information Diet recognizes that in an age of infinite content, the ability to ignore is more valuable than the ability to consume. By deliberately limiting inputs, you protect the mental bandwidth needed for your highest-impact work.
- Most information is irrelevant, and consuming it is a form of productive procrastination.
- Selective ignorance is a skill, not a weakness; choosing what to ignore is as important as choosing what to learn.
- A five-minute summary from a knowledgeable person is more efficient than hours of personal media consumption.
- Seek out experts and concentrated knowledge rather than trying to become an expert in everything yourself.
- Audit Your Information InputsFor three days, track every information source you consume: news sites, social media, email, podcasts, newsletters, TV. Note how much time each one takes and whether it led to any meaningful action or decision.Pro tipUse screen time tracking tools to get objective data rather than relying on your own estimates, which are usually far too low.
- Begin a One-Week Media FastFor seven consecutive days, consume no newspapers, magazines, news websites, or non-essential internet browsing. Do not check social media. Limit email to twice per day, once at noon and once at 4 PM.Pro tipSet up an email auto-responder explaining that you check email at specific times and providing a phone number for truly urgent matters.WarningThe first two to three days will feel deeply uncomfortable. You will feel uninformed and anxious. This is withdrawal, and it passes.
- Establish a Briefing SystemIdentify one or two well-informed colleagues, friends, or family members. Ask them to give you a five-minute daily briefing on anything truly important happening in the world. This ensures you miss nothing critical while saving hours of consumption time.Pro tipAsk your briefer to only share things that require your action or directly affect your life. This filter alone eliminates 95% of news.
- Selectively Reintroduce Information SourcesAfter the fast, slowly add back only the information sources that directly support your goals and highest-priority work. For each source, ask: Did I miss this during the fast? Did its absence cause any real problem? If the answer to both is no, leave it eliminated.Pro tipReplace books on specialized subjects with short workshops or expert consultations. You get distilled, actionable knowledge in a fraction of the time.
- Maintain the Diet with Email BatchingPermanently batch email processing to specific times. Start with twice daily, then try to reduce to once daily or even once weekly. Use auto-responders to set expectations. Most messages can wait; truly urgent requests will come by phone.Pro tipTrack how many genuinely urgent emails you receive in a week. The number is almost always close to zero.
Ferriss stopped reading news, checking non-essential websites, and consuming magazines entirely. He asked friends and colleagues to brief him on anything important during meals. He found that the vast majority of what he had been consuming was entertainment disguised as information.
Instead of checking email constantly throughout the day, Ferriss restricted himself to two checks per day and set up an auto-responder informing contacts of this schedule. He provided a phone number for anything genuinely urgent.
Ferriss developed this approach after realizing that his own information consumption habits were a major source of time waste and anxiety. He noticed that reading the news and constantly checking email gave him a feeling of productivity without actually producing anything. Most of what he consumed was either irrelevant to his life or information he could not act on.
He experimented with cutting out all non-essential media and found that nothing bad happened. The world did not end because he missed the morning headlines. Instead, he gained hours of focused time each day and experienced significantly less stress. The Information Diet became a core component of his elimination strategy.